Is Classic Portraiture Dead?

With the photographic industry going through massive changes, is 'classic' portraiture dead? First, let's define 'classic'. It suggests traditional, old, dated, artistic, traditional, standard, quality, on and on. You get the picture, right? In many ways, 'classic' portraiture is still around. When you look at the styles of portraiture say from the 60's, 70's, and somewhat through the 80's, the posed family or executive and the old masters style brown background, well, that sort of 'look' is certainly dated and pretty much extinct (maybe you will still find it in some areas that still lag behind the times). But, classic influences can still be found and, in my opinion, will never go away.

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Ethics in Photography: Digital Manipulation

Here's something you don't often think about: ethics in photography. In this age of digital photography, what you see isn't always what you get. Photo editing software such as the industry standard, Photoshop, has opened a veritable Pandora's box of what is real and what isn't. Photographers have become digital plastic surgeons. Years can be peeled away by smoothing out wrinkles, scars can be removed, etc. Any flaw is fair game, especially if it makes the image perfect. But where does digital manipulation cross the line? The influence of Photoshop is quite evident in the English lexicon, as well. The act of retouching is sometimes commonly referred to as "photoshopping."

There are two types of photography which couldn't be more different in their philosophy towards digital manipulation: photojournalism and portrait photography. In photojournalism, any change which alters the context of the photo in any way, shape, or form constitutes fraud because the final image is not an accurate representation of what happened. Surprisingly, however, this type of deceit has occurred in major national publications. One notable incident was when Time magazine doctored the mugshot of OJ Simpson. You can read more about this here.

For portrait photographers, the ethics playing field changes completely. It is well understood that the goal of every portrait photographer, perhaps at all costs, is to present clients in the best possible light, literally and figuratively. After all, it may double sales. Clients sometimes pay a high premium to make them look good even if that means removing a third eye. Just kidding, but you know what we mean. So where does it all end? There may be no end in sight, but it would be interesting to see if the trend reverts itself back to truthfully and naturally presenting people as they are and not how they wish they could be.

Hidden Faces

9-11. It was a date like any other until that fateful day in 2001 when the World Trade Center towers in New York City were brought to their knees by two seemingly errant planes. Smoke billowed out of the towers where the planes had unceremoniously entered. The images from this great tragedy were played incessantly, if not excessively. Repeated coverage reached a breaking point with the public, and news outlets finally agreed to stop showing the footage. The images became indelibly etched in our minds and our hearts. But, was there more than met the eye in those images? Was there something beyond the myriad of conspiracy theories?

NoBS member and professional videographer Victor Carter thought so. He said, "I have always suspected that 9-11, and terrorism in general, has a supernatural origin." With this in mind, Victor began looking at news footage slowed down to a few frames per second to see if he could see strange and unnatural things. What he would discover would have a profound impact on him. Victor saw a couple of strange hidden faces. It inspired him to continue looking for more and to create the documentary entitled, "Count The Faces of 9/11!" The film has approximately 41 minutes of hidden faces never before seen from 9/11 newsreel footage.

Victor submitted his film to the New York Independent International Film and Video Festival, and NoBS is proud to tell you that it was accepted. Anyone interested in attending a showing should go to this link to see the schedule of films showing. All showings are free and Victor is anxious for NoBS members in the New York area to go see it and give him their thoughts on it.

Congratulations on your huge accomplishment, Victor!

NoBS Get Togethers

NoBS members truly span the globe. Members can be found in places as far away as South Africa, Venezuela, Australia, and Scotland, as well as Canada and the U.S. For these and other members located far away, distance can be a challenge when trying to attend seminars. To solve this dilemma, several NoBS members have been organizing regional get togethers. The most notable and active region to date is the Northwest section of NoBS.

Members Ashdownlea, gloryshots, mellissai, photosensitive, and Amie who all live in the Pacific Northwest of the United States have gotten together five times so far this year. The inspiration, according to gloryshots (James), "was since most of the NoBS workshops/seminars are not located on the west coast for easy travel for us to go to, we thought, hey there are a few photographers that live within a couple hours of each other."

"I think that ultimately, we decided to meet together regularly to both build relationships and to exchange ideas. We talk about shooting techniques, business strategies... and life," said Amie.

James added, "You learn so much when you get together with a group of photographers. A lot of the time, it seems like a free for all as the shooting goes. It's amazing to see the different things everyone does and what you pick up. It is also a good time to chat and talk business things and to pick each other's brain."

The group does studio and location shoots with each member hosting as they rotate meeting spots. Models have been either clients or Amie's children, Ashdownlea's (Debbie's) daughters, or James in a tutu!

These sessions have proven successful in sparking creativity and in creating a true sense of camraderie.

If you'd like to share a story about, or organize, a NoBS get together with the gang, drop us a line and let us know about it!

Industry News

In the latest issue of Photoshop User, Daniel East reports that Adobe Systems' Advanced Technologies Lab is working on photo authentication plug-ins for Photoshop to aid in the fight against photo forgery.

Adobe has been working closely with Canon and Reuters more recently to ensure authenticity of images produced by Reuters in the wake of a scandal involving two digitally manipulated photos. One of the photos was of some buildings in Beirut showing more smoke coming out than actually was the case, thereby implying more damage had been done than in reality.

In response to the scandal, earlier this year Reuters Editor-In-Chief David Schlesinger published an entry in the Reuters blog, stating the guidelines for limited Photoshop use at Reuters. Click here to read it.

The release date for the plug-ins is not yet known as it is still in the developmental stages.

Silverlake Backgrounds: May Group Buy

If you missed out on the vote for the May discounted backgrounds, here is the final tally as announced by Travis Gadsby on May 23:

"This month's special design choices will be Fire and Ice, Sweet Pea, and Dune.

The votes are comprised from 4 forums that participate in the group buy. We ran Sweet Apple on special a few months back, but since NoBS was not a participant during these offers, we decided to allow you guys to take advantage of the Sweet Apple this month...as long as you don't tell anyone else. The offer works the same as the others, but you would place the code apple special in the coupon code box. We don't typically make exceptions for each forum, but we are very excited to be working with this group and wanted to thank everyone for welcoming us as sponsors.

As members of NOBS, you will be entitled to purchase any of the hand painted designs for a deeply discounted $149.00 plus shipping. The same discount will be applied to the Fire and Ice, which makes it $339.00 for the group buy price.

If you wish to purchase more than one, you need to make separate orders for each background as our shopping cart will only accept one coupon per order. Make sure that you select the 10x20 size from the drop down. "

These specials will be good until June 3rd.

Click here for the special discount links.

Photography Marketing Tools: Projection Sales

Quite a while ago, about 1990, I bought two Ektagraphic slide show projectors with zoom lenses. Up until then, I would use what was called an opaque proof projector to show and sell portraits in my studio. The slide projectors were a huge stepping stone for me and very innovative as a marketing tool. I also purchased a large, high-quality, motorized drop-down screen that would descend from the ceiling before the presentation at the flip of a switch.

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